The 20s

That’s what a New York City first grade teacher did to 7-year-old Joseph Anderson after the child “became upset while decorating an Easter egg.”  And while I disagree with handcuffing angry children in theory, I have two of my own and… yeah… the thought does cross one’s mind from time to time.

[shortformblog]

If Sugar Doesn’t Kill You, Sitting Will. Which is good news because you’re probably reading this while running in the park, and not sitting in front of your computer, at the end of a 9 hour stretch of sitting, right? Last Sunday’s issue of The New York Times magazine section singled out sugar as the biggest danger to humans. But The Atlantic says that what’s actually worse for you is long periods of sitting. “Common sense should tell us that sitting for long periods of time is not what humans were designed to do…It turns out that obesity and its related ills will continue to rise until and unless WE more often rise. ” So, go ahead and treat yourself to that vending machine candy bar and eat it walking back to your desk.  It’s better for you than sitting.

-KH

[The Atlantic, NYT, the20newyork]

Or so says the latest study from the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. The researchers had test subjects answer math questions on a computer, letting them know that the answers to the questions would appear in a few moments if they didn’t press the space bar when finished.  The temptation to find out the answer to a question was greater, they found, in people who believed in a forgiving God.  I mean, it’s His job to let a couple slide every so often, right?  Those who say they didn’t believe in God at all were found—on this particular set of tests—less likely to cheat.  And with that, the veil is lifted off my my years of Catholic school education.  Just in time for Easter.

-KH

[Jen Doll on VV, NewsWire, the20newyork]

Twitter Used Against Suspect in Rutgers Suicide Case. Last September, Dharun Ravi is alleged to have secretly videotaped his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, during a liaison with another man in their dorm room. Ravi is then accused of watching with another friend and posting about it on Twitter, encouraging others to watch, too.  Days later, Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge, citing the embarrassing incident.  Ravi’s actions online—and on Twitter—would be an important aspect in his indictment, which was announced earlier today. He was indicted on privacy and bias charges in a 15-count indictment, including three counts of evidence tampering and one count of witness tampering related directly to his Twitter actions following the suicide.  Ravi is accused of deleting a tweet telling his friends and followers to watch Clementi online and later replaced it with a “false post … intended to mislead the investigation,” prosecutors said.

-KH

[NBCNewYork, The Smoking Gun, the20newyork]

School Lunch: An Evolution. AdAge has the story of how Lunchables, the “king of kid’s lunches”, is trying to rebrand their image as a healthy option for parents. When I was a kid, Lunchables were not known for being exactly healthy; I fondly remember the Taco Bell-brand version.  But now, with childhood obesity a nationwide concern—and Jamie Oliver all over our TVs showing us what a healthy lunch is—Kraft is cleaning up their plastic-box act.  Their secret weapon?  Adding fruit (in syrup.)  My first guess would be to take out the slimy, high-sodium ham slices, but then again, I did like the squeeze-tube meat tacos.

-KH

[AdAge, @kunur, the20newyork]

I saw the above headline and got really excited, until I learned that it’s only true if you’re someone who doesn’t normally use expletives.  Which makes this study totally %*@!ing useless. 

-DM

[msnbc]